Parkington '51

For your consideration: an experimental film from 1984, shot in black-and-white Super-8, and hand developed. A rare document of a 1950s 'one-stop shopping center' in its senile years, the film features beautifully detached scenes of blank sentimentality, whatever that means... it also digresses into other stuff, ostensibly for context, seeming to serve some purpose. Either way, the tone of the piece is sharp. The voice: clear.

Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information about this peculiar lost landmark; not even a nod from the various websites devoted to the history of Arlingon, Virginia. The time has come, and so Parkington Shopping Center will be examined further in a future post. The public needs to know. For now, take a look at the film. More to come, including the reassembled sequel.

Super-8 stills: © Michael Horsley, 1984.

Catastrophic System Failure

The Otto Mannix Two-Year Anniversary went over without a hitch... at first. Then the deluge of responses and congratulations flooded in and crashed our state-of-the-art computer systems. The efficient and attractive Operations Monitor, Daphne, immediately followed protocol and ran the data up through the chain of command.
A review of surveillance tapes revealed no foulplay. The mainframe was shut down, with auxiliary processors running diagnostics. A suspected VIRUS was then discovered in the CPU. Otto Mannix himself and VP Helmut Schplatt discussed possible strategies and avenues of escape. Diagnostics indicated not a virus but a PARASITE, uncommon in these systems. A private contractor, Inspector Columbine, was brought in on a Sunday to poke around and ask the tough questions. No stranger to parasites, having once contracted the Malaria, Columbine seemed to be getting to the bottom of something. The results of his inquiry will be posted upon completion. For now, our Tech Team has brought in the RCA Spectra Data Collecting System as an interim means of operation. Thank you for your patience in this matter.